The Ramsey Show - App - Dealing With Car Insurance After an Accident (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 31, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. William starts off this hour in Austin, Texas. Hi, William. How are you?

Good. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my wife and I have some questions for you. So despite having substantial student loans, we ended up buying a house. And in doing that, we've been pretty tight every month. So, you know, we're wanting to expedite paying off all of our debt.

And we're just wondering if it would be a good idea to sell the house and, you know, go back to an apartment to where we could be paying significantly less. Currently, we have about $81,000 in student loans, about $19,000 tied up in a car, and we're expecting about $8,000 in health bills from our children's surgeries. And what's your household income? Our take-home monthly ranges from about $5,900 to $6,100 a month. Okay. And what's your house payment? Our house payment is $1,771 a month.

Okay. So we're both nurses. I am in nurse practitioner school. So the potential for earning once I finish increases my monthly income significantly, but that won't be for another 16 months. Okay, good, good. And no, I wouldn't sell the house. I'd sell the car. Okay. $19,000 car is a big payment, a lot of debt. it's one-fifth of your debt in this situation

the house is not killing you um and you've got a really good long-term five-year light at the end of the tunnel called your income going up when you finish nurse practitioner and so um you know i think you're going to be in great shape uh you're going to get there uh it's going to take you a little while but uh i would get rid of the car get rid of that car payment and you know get yourself on a really really tight budget make sure you've stopped all 401ks make sure you're not going out to eat you're not going on vacations we're not spending money we have a big student loan mess. We have to clean up here.

And, you know, it can be done. And if you can get the rhythm of starting to beat on that student loan pretty aggressively, and then your income 18 months from now goes up and really gets after that, that's when you're going to see the needle move here. And it'll go crazy. But you've got to get the groove carved out before you get to the nurse practitioner income. And when you get to that, then that's going to turn it all loose. But it won't if you're just kind of still doing half-ish stuff so don't

do ish go go all in get completely focused get rid of the car and keep your house and let's work through it and and i think you're going to be okay five years from now when you do that it's not going to take you that long to be debt free but i'm saying you're going to be really making good progress on the house you're going to be making making good progress on the house. You're going to be making, you should be easily debt-free by then, other than the house, and have your emergency fund. And, you know, you'll be moving along. You'll have everything in stride like it's supposed to be. Dave is with us in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Hey, Dave, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How you doing? How you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Pretty good. i got a question i have um a student loan i just graduated last week um in construction engineering but i have student loans and they broke up they're with the same company i went with me and my wife in our

baby step two so we're working on our debt so i'm wondering should i consolidate those into one or should i leave them uh individual they're all with the same company and i called the company and they said i can consolidate them into one the interest rate of change it'll go from like he said it'll go up like 0.135 yeah no thank you We don't want to go up in interest rate. There's no benefit to that. One student loan will pay off at exactly the same speed as 10 student loans that equal the same amount if the interest rate is exactly the same. And so the fastest way to pay them off is, of course, have the lowest possible interest rate and then get into attack mode. So you've graduated.

Now, what's your job? Are you going to be able to get one? Well, I'm already a general contractor. I need that to better myself. So I already have a business, and I already have a business going. I just want to do more to the business. I want to be able to do full bills pretty much by myself. So I do have to take some hours with the engineering company so I can get my engineering license.

But my income now, well, it's me and my wife, so we probably bring up $160 to $180 a year. And how much student loan debt do you have? I have $60, and my wife has like 40. So if you're going to live on beans and rice, rice and beans, you're out of debt in less than two years. Right, right. And that was the plan. I just didn't know if I needed to consolidate them to make it one or just leave them alone like they are and pay them off like they were.

Less interest if you leave them alone. Okay. And that's the answer. Plus, you can list them in your debt snowball, and you'll get that sense of traction of knocking them off one at a time down through there. And that's the way to go. So, good question. Thank you for joining us.

Nick is in Detroit. Hey, Nick, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. What's up? My question is this. Saturday, I got a call from my financial advisor. I've had him for over a decade, and he's been a financial advisor to the family for longer than that. He calls up and says he and the other financial advisors, about four or five in the office,

and the support staff had all resigned the previous Friday from a nationally known company and opened up under another name, under another financial company. Under another broker-dealer, yeah. Correct. Okay. I like the guy. My family likes the guy and have started the paperwork to continue using him as services. Is there anything I need to ask out of, you know, say the ordinary, how much are the fees? Are we going to continue the same plan as they had for me under the new company? Is there anything else I need to be asking, looking at, and especially telling my family once they move over to the same financial advisor but under a different umbrella?

I think those are all good questions that you're talking about. Are the fee structures going to change? Is the advice going to change? And the thing I don't like about this conversation is that you're depending on this guy because he's an old family friend and we're kind of just

supposed to do whatever he says rather than you learn about your own investments and you make decisions. He's not supposed to be a financial manager. He's supposed to be a financial advisor. He advises you. You're the manager. You make your own decisions about money.

And so if that type of relationship with him having the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman can exist, then you're fine. But moving broker-dealers after all these years, there's probably a distinct reason for that, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Over the years, I've seen so many families suffer by not having life insurance. It's not that they didn't care. It's just that they didn't know. So they did nothing.

That's a huge mistake. Listen, husbands and wives, moms and dads, think about it. If you died, how would your family pay the bills, the mortgage, the food? This is what life insurance is all about. And term life is the only way to go. It's not expensive and it's not complicated. Stop wasting money on cash value plans. You need 10 to 12 times your income in protection, and I recommend 15 or 20-year plans. I also only recommend Zander Insurance and have for almost 20 years. These are the people I use, and they only offer the plans I recommend. Call 800-356-1780 or visit zander.com and compare online. It's just the smarter, more affordable way to buy insurance.

That's 800-356-1780 or zander.com. Thanks for joining us, America. Danielle is in Palm Springs, California. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Danielle. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so I have an old city bank credit card debt that was sold to a third-party debt buyer. I received mail from the courts that they got a judgment of $4,200 in January 2014.

They now say that it's $6,200 balance. my husband has been dealing with them and offered them very little. Two different times, two different conversations, two weeks apart, and both the times they offered $5,600. So what do you think we should do? They paid about probably a nickel on the dollar for that of the original balance. The original balance was what, $2,000? No. What was the original balance on the credit card? I can't remember because it was from 2007.

I think it was $2,000, but the judgment in 2014 is $4,200. I don't care what the judgment in 2014 is $4,200. I don't care what the judgment is. Okay. Okay. If it was $2,000, they probably paid $100 for this. Okay. And they've got some legal fees, but hardly any. They might have $200 in legal fees in this.

Okay. So if you offered them $1,000 to $2,000, that's all I would give them. Okay. Let me tell you, these third-party debt buyers are scum. They're bottom feeders. And, you know, tell them what you're going to do is you're going to take them back to court, and you're going to defeat the original judgment if they keep messing with you. Say, you know, I'll give you a thousand fifteen hundred

bucks and i need to get that in writing from you and what did he offer them he offered them six hundred dollars that's not a bad offer okay i would i would go up on that but um but just you But just, you know, just here's the thing. They fight for a living. Right. So they enjoy the tussle. Meaning that, you know, you're not going to solve this in two phone calls over two weeks. Right. You're going to fight with them between now and Christmas. He's going to have 20 phone calls between now and Christmas,

and he's going to settle it for $1,000 to $2,000. Have you got $1,000 to $2,000? Yes. Okay. Two rules. Number one rule, no deal that's in, unless the deal is in writing, it did not occur. You can tell these people are lying if their mouth is moving. Right.

They're scum. So you have to get it in writing or don't do the deal. The second thing is do not give them electronic access to your checking account. It's okay to pay your cable bill or your electric bill or something like that with access to your checking account, but don't give a third-party debt buyer access to your checking account. They'll clean out everything that's in there. They lie. Did I mention that they lie?

Did I mention that they're scum? Scum of the earth. Yes. I think that was the phrase. Yeah, you got it. Okay. So that's what you're dealing with here. So it's hard to believe you think you're dealing with some normal human being on the other end.

You are not. You are dealing with the bottom of the barrel. So in writing and no electronic access to your checking account. So you can either pick up a prepaid debit card and, you know, load the exact amount on there, let them hit that, and then close that. Or you could, you know, send them a certified check overnight, FedEx, or whatever. But money order, I don't care. But no money out of your personal checking account.

They will clean you out. And do not give them any money if it's not in writing. And expect it to take 20 conversations. None of which are pleasant because these are unpleasant people. Right. They're jerks. Right. They're jerks. Right. And you won't talk to the same person twice

because most of them don't work there more than about a month and a half because once they get a good job, they leave. Wow, yeah. No one wants to do this for a living. Think about if you had to sit there and do that all day, every day for the next 10 years. Gross. Gross. Nobody. It's a high turnover position.

So that's another reason that if you don't get it in writing, it never happened, because the guy you're talking to is not going to be there next time you call. So just talk to them once every two weeks until you get it solved. $1,000 to $2,000 should do it and get it in writing. And they're not going to come after you. They're not going to do anything. They're full of crap. In California, what they have to go through to actually get money away from you,

it's almost impossible for them to put a lien on your account or garnish your wages. They can do it, but they're not going to. They would rather just let it sit there until someday you want to pay them more money. And I would just call them or let them call you up to once every two weeks. But I'm not having a nightly conversation with them that sounds exactly the same. Just hang up on them. That's the other thing. Virginia is in St. Louis.

Hi, Virginia. How are you? Hey, Dave. Happy Friday to you. Thanks for taking my call. Hi, Virginia. How are you? Hey, Dave. Happy Friday to you. Thanks for taking my call. My pleasure. How can I help? I'm calling you today with what I think is a short question, but we'll see.

I would like to ask if I should sell some stocks and mutual fund assets that I have in a taxable brokerage account to pay our mortgage off faster. So my husband and I, we have two kids. We're kind of past baby step four, and we've flipped baby step five and six. So at this point, we're really paying down the mortgage fast. We have a 15-year mortgage. What's your balance on the mortgage? $96,000. And if you cleaned out non-retirement assets and threw it at the house, how much would you have?

$70,000. Okay. What's your household income? $140,000. So you're debt-free in a year if you do this. Yeah. We're already paying it down really fast, and so we're throwing extra. Do it.

Do it. If your house was paid for, would you borrow money to put in mutual funds on your house? Say that again? If your home was paid off, would you go get a mortgage to put money in mutual funds? Hell no. Well, you're doing it every morning. Oh, geez. How about that for clarity?

I've been having this whole conversation that I've had 10% return on the assets in this account. It's the same thing. It's the same thing, only in reverse, right? Yeah. Pay it off today, or pull it out today and pay it down and then finish with your fabulous income knocking that puppy out. Proud of you. You're getting ready to be debt-free, housing everything, Virginia. Look at you. Look at you. I like you i like it well done man that's fun ivan is on twitter dave is a cash

advance loan the same thing as using hard money i hear this hard money term used a lot in real estate investment conversations. No, it's not the same thing as using hard money. It's stupid money is what cash advance is because it's ridiculous interest rates, the same building as the payday lender's in, right? So it's stupid money. Generally speaking, I mean, there's people throw around these things, and sometimes you know what they're talking about.

Sometimes they don't know what they're talking about. But most of the time, soft money is unsecured debt, and hard money is secured debt. Generally, that's what it means. So a mortgage would be hard money. A credit card would be soft money. Generally, that kind of a thing is what they're talking about. An unsecured loan, personal loan, personal line of credit, soft money, that kind of thing. Generally. Now, not everybody defines it that way

and if you don't don't send me a bunch of twitter crap like i don't know what i'm talking about you don't know what you're talking about nobody uses these terms anymore hardly it's just about over but bottom line is whatever a cash advance loan is hard soft it's definitely stupid. Okay? So we're not doing it. Stay completely away from cash advance people. Bad idea. Bad idea. Really dumb. Mark is on Twitter. Says, I'm 66.

I'm retired. I'm not married. I have no debt except a mortgage of $245,000. My house is worth $350,000. I have $350,000 in my 401k. My annual income is $72,000. Should have $350,000 in my 401k. My annual income is $72,000. Should I pay off the mortgage with my 401k? I hate for you to be that broke.

That gets you down to less than $100,000 to your name, but you'd have a paid-for house. You're not going to like my answer. Financially only, not counting the fact that it there's a personal aspect to this but just looking at the math i'd move down in house and pay off my house i would pay for a house but you can't do it with what you got here because you're going to end up with no money in your nest egg I'm out. Colton is in Kansas City. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Colton. Hey, Dave. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? An honor to speak with you, sir. Thank you for taking my call. I'm 22. I just graduated from college debt-free, thankfully. So I've been working really hard, and I have some money in a brokerage account. Good for you. What did you graduate in? What degree? A finance degree. Good. And how'd you do that debt free um well just academic scholarships and my parents also had some money set up for me to use and also just working through it and uh paid my

way for some of it as well very cool where. Where'd you graduate from? Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph. Good for you. Excellent, excellent. And so now you're out debt-free and you're making money. What's your income? Well, like I said, I just graduated four weeks ago. Oh. Yeah, I start next week studying for my Series 7,

and when I start doing that, I'll have an honest salary of like $38,000. Good for you. Who are you going to work for? Edward Jones. Good for you. Series 7 is a tough test. That's about like taking a CPA exam, so you better be hitting the books.

That's a tough one. But you can do it. Yeah, I'm planning on it. You can do it, man. Congratulations. All right, so your question is what then? Oh, so I have a Roth as well as just an individual brokerage account, and so I'm thinking while I'm young and in a smaller tax bracket,

is there a way that I could move some of the money from my brokerage account into my Roth like a lump sum besides just the minimum $5,500 a year? Nope. Nope. And it's got to be in some kind of a retirement account to roll it into a Roth. Okay, because I've heard that you guys talk about ruling a lump sum, and I didn't realize that was just in like a retirement account. Yeah, but after a lump sum out of a pension plan,

sometimes you'll hear us talk about that instead of paying the monthly payments on a pension plan, they'll offer them a lump sum buyout on a pension plan. You can roll that in. If it's in a 401k, you could roll that in. If it's, you know, an old IRA of some kind, you could roll that in, but not just from a brokerage account. No way to do that. It's from retirement account to retirement account is what it amounts to. Now, what I would do is immediately start your Edward Jones 401k as soon as you can and max out all you can put

into it right now. Because your income is going to shoot way up. Your base of 38s, that's starvation money in their minds, and you're either going to go up from there or they're going to fire you. Yeah. Because you're going to have to produce in that organization.

They don't screw around. So you're going to move on to something else if you're not making more than 38. And so just load that puppy full. Make sure you have a big emergency fund, and don't go borrowing money for your car, pay cash for your car, whatever you're going to do, pay cash for it, moving out like you're doing. And you've done a great job setting yourself up. Congratulations.

What a great start at 22. Very, very proud of you. Excellent job. I'm sure your mom and dad are proud. All right, Laurel is with us in South Bend, Indiana. Hi, Laurel. How are you? Hi, I'm good, thanks.

How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm a single mom, and my daughter is 15. She started working when she was 14 at a daycare owned by a friend of ours. Yay! Yeah, so she went with me to my second FPU class kicking and screaming, but she went and she did pick up some things.

So it helped a little because I dictated a certain amount to tithing, savings, all that, and gave, you know, 25% of her check was hers to keep, but her responsibility was purchasing her own clothing. So my question now is she is in tutoring because she's been struggling with schoolwork. So I had to put her in tutoring and I'm just getting back on the bandwagon with the baby steps. And so I was looking at my budget and the tutoring is just so much more than what I can handle. So I reached out to her dad who had initially said that he'd be able to help starting in May. Well, this being the end of May, I reached out to him and he said, no, he's not going to help right now and was actually complaining to her about me

even asking. So she's decided that she wants to get another job this summer and help. Well, I'm just wondering at what point, you know point is this my parental pride saying, no, this is my responsibility when I've already given her responsibilities for her money, and at what point do I let her start taking a little more financial responsibility for herself and her needs? What subject is she being tutored in? Algebra. Okay. And what does it cost?

Right now it's costing about $360 a month, and I'm trying to see because they're saying that she needs to be there two days a week. I'm trying to see if we can get it down to one day a week. And what does her study habits look like after she's not with the tutor? She really tries hard. She's studying all the time it's just a matter of it's just not she's putting in she's putting hours on this then she is putting in hours it's not it's just not clicking and the tutor has helped with it clicking so there's we're seeing results okay. And what do you make a year? Depending.

My income is very irregular, and so I make anywhere between $35,000 to $45,000 a year. Okay, and why is your income irregular? I'm a therapist, but I just work PRN, so I have six facilities that I go to right now. So when they need me, work is really high, and when they don't need me, it's very low. I see. Okay. And there's nothing you can do to backfill any of that or pick up more hours? I just added two more facilities, so I'm working on finding other PRN positions. I'm also a caregiver for my grandmother, so the flexibility that offers is something that I need in raising my daughter

and helping my grandmother. But I'm also working on an Etsy store. So anything I can do in the cracks of time that I'm not working, I'm trying to find ways that I can increase my income. And you said you went through financial peace, and now you've gotten back on the wagon. So what happened that you quit doing this stuff? I'm a free spirit. you there okay can you hear me okay yeah i just clicked i thought you were gone um okay the uh and i just i struggled with the budget and and accountability was the biggest thing not having anyone to be accountable for so okay here's what we need to do okay sure

i don't think that the teenager picking up three hundred dollars is the problem okay i think that is highlighting the fact that you've got to get your act together absolutely and i'm not picking on you but you're making okay money you're just juggling a lot of things as a free spirit you're taking care of mom grandmom that is you're taking care of daughter um and you got worries with both of them and your caregiver which drains you emotionally as well and you just got a lot of things pulling at you at the same time and so all these plates are spinning it's hard to keep them all spinning and uh you're pretty much a warrior kiddo you got a lot of stuff going on i'm proud. And you're pretty much a warrior, kiddo. You've got a lot of stuff going on. I'm proud of you.

You're fighting through this. So what I want you to do is I want you and her to go back through Financial Peace University again. Okay. Okay. And I'm going to put you in our one-year membership program, which has the every dollar plus for a year and online access for a year, as well as go to the group and go through the nine lessons again. And I'm going to pay for it for you to be upgraded and put into that whole thing.

Okay? Thank you. And that gives you accountability and encouragement for sticking to this. Okay? And you get you an accountability partner in that group, somebody you can stick with after that group ends after nine weeks that will hold you accountable for staying on the budget because it's your only shot. Right.

You know, doing all you're doing. The only way the plates stay spinning is they have to be greased, and that grease is called money. Yeah. And I think this is going to solve itself. If she pays for one month of it by working this summer while you get a few things turned around, that's okay. She can pay for one month of it by working this summer while you get a few things turned around, that's okay. She can pay for one month.

But you don't want this to be her responsibility. I want her to learn to work. She's 15. I want her to learn to work, to give, to save, to spend. But you were already teaching her those things, and then you quit doing them. So we've got to get you doing them again, because more is caught than taught from your kids. So you hold on, and I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll get you guys back in there and take her with you to the class.

There's probably a little algebra built into Financial Peace University. Not really, but we could probably find a lesson if we wanted to. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Aaron is in Washington, D.C. Hi, Aaron. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you, sir? Better than I deserve. What's up? So, Dave, I was actually put on to you in January, and since then I've been really aggressively attacking my debt,

and I am on baby step two. And I have two big debts, one being credit card, one being student loans, and I was in a snowball effect until I realized they're both at the same amount. So which one should I try to clean up first, my student loans or my credit cards? You're saying student loans in plural. You have more than one student loan? Yes, so there are two, and when you add them up, they equal $12,000. You don't do the debt snowball by category.

You do it by loan amount. They're both pretty even, though. They're both right at about $5,800 and one's at $5,700. And how much is the credit card debt? Credit card's about $12,000. On one credit card? Yes. Okay, then it's $5,800, $5, is about $12,000. On one credit card? Yes. Okay.

Then it's $5,800, $5,800, $12,000. That's your debt snowball. Okay. So student loans first and then go on to the credit card? Smallest debt first. Okay. Not by category. By the actual debt.

So if you tell me I got $12,000 in credit card debt and it's on six credit cards, we don't do it by $12,000. We do it by the balance of the six credit cards. You tell me I got five student loans that total $30,000, we don't do it by $30,000. We do it by the five student loan amounts. And so they may get interspersed in a situation like I just outlined, meaning that you might have its smallest to largest. Pay minimum payments on everything but the little one and attack the little one with a vengeance and work your way right down.

Richard's in Kansas City. Hi, Richard. How are you? Hey, Dave. How's it going? Better than I deserve. What's up? I just had a question about um i'm 22 i just graduated

college a couple weeks ago um i have a job i'm a territory sales manager um i have my emergency fund i have a roth ira i have a 401k all that good for you and um my issue is car insurance and how expensive it is. About a year and a half ago, I got into an accident, a pretty bad one, and my rates went up very, very high. I pay about, it comes out to about $3,000 a year for car insurance. Ouch. So I really don't have any debt.

That's the good news. And I have a job, obviously. But I just wanted to see what your thoughts were on if there's anything I can do to get that cost down. I've looked around at other companies. I have GEICO right now. But I looked around at other companies, and they're all charging me very, very high surcharges, which is what's causing the rate to go up so much. Right, due to the wreck. Yeah.

And so you said you had an emergency fund. How much is in it? I do, $11,000. And how much is your household income right now? It's about, I bring in about, my base salary is $40, but then there's bonuses and stuff because it is a sales position. So it's $40, but it could go up to 45 okay if i give you a bonus well done all right so uh two or three things one is um the the pain will not be

for 10 years this will not go on for 10 years this is a a two-year problem or something like that and then you're going to start to see the rates decrease if you keep a clean driving record from this point forward you know you have a double dip here you got a wreck then you're going to start to see the rates decrease if you keep a clean driving record from this point forward. You know, you have a double dip here. You've got a wreck and you're 22. That's the two worst possible things a human can do when it comes to car insurance. And one of them you can't control. So the first thing is the obvious one, and that is get with an insurance broker that will shop among several different companies,

given your situation, and that can also advise you as to when some of the penalties for this wreck are going to start dropping off, these surcharges. Okay? An easy way to do that, just click on ELP for insurance at DaveRamsey.com, and they will shop among a bunch of different things. Now, as they're doing that, I want you to run different scenarios on the insurance, okay? Number one, the place you don't scrimp is liability.

It is the best buy in insurance. So you can put a half a million dollar liability on there, and it won't save you hardly anything to drop that down to $100,000. That's not what's killing you, okay? That's not where you're getting pinched. So don't skimp on liability. The scenarios I want you to run are mainly on the deductible. What size deductible are you carrying today?

I have a 1,000 collision and also a 1,000 uncomprehensive, but the problem is, Dave, is that because I'm a sales manager, I have to drive for work, and my company requires me to have those deductibles. I can go higher than 1,000, or I can go lower than 1,000, but it has to be 1,000 or less. It can't than $1,000, but it has to be $1,000 or less. It can't be like $2,000 or $2,500 or something like that. Run the scenarios, and if the savings is ridiculous to go to $2,500, it may not be. Then go in and show your supervisor the balance in your savings account.

You tell them your situation and say, I need a waiver on this temporarily until I get this insurance under control. Okay. And just talk them through the logic of this. I don't blame them for wanting to make sure that they have good insurance if somebody's out there selling for them. I got that. Okay. But I'm going to show you the balance in my savings account, this particular situation. And, dude, this saves me $1,000 a year.

And if it does, then take that higher deductible. But you can run the scenarios out on the deductibles and then go argue with your company if it's worth it. If it saves you $50, it's not worth arguing with them. Right, right. But if it saves you $1,000, it's worth talking about. And it might. Okay. I don't know.

Yeah. All right. So then the way you measure anytime you're raising a deductible is you're taking more risk let's say we went from a thousand to twenty five hundred that's a fifteen hundred dollar additional risk and uh then you divide your savings into that fifteen hundred dollars and say that tells you how many years you got to have that you got to go without having a wreck right and so again if the savings is $1,000 on a $1,500 additional risk, we'll do that in a heartbeat because that's, you know, a year and a half

you've got to go without a wreck. Yeah, I'm taking that risk. But if the savings is $150, that's 10 years. No, I'm not taking that risk. Yeah. In most cases. Okay. So that's your scenario you run.

You run different liabilities amounts and look at that and consider that and then look at a couple of other things. So the main thing is shop it and run some scenarios and see if you can get some savings and then also find out when that surcharge is going to start dropping off, how far from the wreck before you start getting a little relief from this pain. And I don't know that off the top of my head. So and it would be different probably for a 22 than a 57 year old to, by the way.

So, you know, I'm guessing that's that pain is not going to be long lasting. That's my my hope for your sake. So good question, man. I appreciate you joining us. Folks, you can always go and shop our endorsed local providers for insurance. It's called P&C, property and casualty, is what the category is called. And that means you shop your homeowners and your car insurance as a bundle. And the average person is saving $731.

And so what that tells you is the all states and the state farms of the world, they make 90% of their living off of that category. They're basically car and homeowner's insurance operations. But they can shop only one company, their own company. That's what's called a captive agent. So they can't give you quotes from competing groups. So an insurance broker actually shops among several different companies. They actually work for you.

When someone is a captive agent, they actually work for that company, not for you, because they can only sell you one product, that product, that particular brand of stuff. So that's why I always use an insurance broker. Like, for instance, when you're doing life insurance, when we send you to Zander Insurance, it's the same thing. When you click on their website, put in your stuff, that software there in about 13 seconds shops all the major life insurance carriers in the marketplace, which there's a bunch of them, and then it lines them up in your case and gives you a cheapest to most expensive lineup,

and you can pick the best deal on life insurance. And that's why I buy my life insurance there and have for 20-plus years. So that's how this works. We appreciate you guys listening. James Childs is our producer. Kelly Daniel is our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back. Hey, guys, it's Blake Thompson, senior Executive Producer for The Dave Ramsey Show.

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